If at First You Don’t Succeed….

NY-23. You remember NY-23. You know, the place where the nascent Tea Party movement first spread its political wings and flexed it’s political muscle. The place where 11 GOP county chairman sat behind closed doors and anointed a candidate so liberal that the Democrat candidate actually positioned himself as the conservative in the race.

NY-23. The place where prominent conservative Republicans bucked the “Establishment” and endorsed a little known Conservative nominee named Doug Hoffman while “Establishmentarian” Newt Gingrich took to the airwaves to castigate said conservative Republicans for having the temerity to buck the “Establishment” all while bemoaning the narrow-mindedness and lack of team play of said endorsement.

It’s where the relentless exposure of Dede Scozzafava’s liberal voting record caused her poll numbers to drop faster than the stock market following an Obama economic speech.

NY-23, where those cratering poll numbers caused Dede to withdraw the weekend before the election whereupon, in the true spirit of the ‘big tent’ philosophy that RINO/liberal Republicans promulgate ad nauseum, she promptly endorsed the Democrat nominee.

Yeah, that NY-23.

So, that debacle having played out on the national stage, now that the 2010 elections have rolled around, one would have thought that the chastened, egg-encrusted GOP leaders in northern New York who foisted this disaster upon the Republican Party would realize the error of their way and look to the guy who despite this fiasco lost the election by only 4%, right?

In a recently conducted series of votes, 9 of the 11 GOP County Executive Committees in NY-23 have endorsed not Doug Hoffman but a candidate who sits firmly to the left of Doug, especially on social issues, and who has been endorsed by the populist Independence Party which, among other things, is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, believes in public financing of elections and has endorsed Andrew Cuomo for governor.

Initially, one’s ire is drawn inexorably toward these 9 GOP Executive Committees and their chairmen. So, what’s the deal, guys? Having not succeeded in getting a moderate/liberal GOPer elected last time, are you bound and determined to try, try again?

But then reality sets in. Why would anyone expect a different outcome? By what rule of logic would one expect the same people who endorsed a liberal for the last election to suddenly endorse a conservative this time? Maybe they’re not the problem. Maybe, ahem, we’re the problem.

You see, those moderate/liberal Executive Committeemen were elected by moderate/liberal precinct committeemen. And if NY-23 is anything like the rest of the country, over half of it’s precinct committeemen slots are filled with….no one. That’s right. No. One.

Now, imagine what might have happened had movement conservatives taken the time and effort these past 8 months to fill those slots with…conservatives. That’s right. Imagine if we were the Party.

Think that’s a pipe dream? Think it’ll never happen? Think that’s it’s too hard… or you have to be ‘connected’… or it takes too much time? Wrong, wrong and wrong. Need proof? It’s already happened in Maricopa and Clark counties, the largest, most populated counties in Arizona and Nevada, respectively.

Take too much time and effort and connections? Suggestion – head on over to the Precinct Project and see just how incredibly simple it is to become part of “The Party’s” infrastructure. Got the time to write a letter to your CongressCritter, or take in a ballgame? Becoming “The Party” takes about the same amount of time and you don’t even have to pay for parking.

NY-23? It serves as a beacon in the war against Establishmentarians who believe that this fight between the forces of freedom and the tentacles of an all-consuming government will be won by compromising, who continually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, who are more enamored by the DC cocktail circuit than they are conservative values, and who seemingly never tire of worshiping at the altar of bi-partisanship.

Tired of the NY-23’s? Fed up with “The Party” promising to fight to the last man and then meekly succumbing to the ‘inevitable’? Weary of having to vote between a Democrat and “The Party’s” Dem-lite candidate? Exhausted from writing seemingly endless letters to the leadership of “The Party” only to see the same old cave-ins?